This part-time teacher will carry a tune but not a pistol to school

“When you have a high-volume magazine or an assault weapon, you're not hunting deer or protecting your home; you're out to hunt people.” 

                                                                            — U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley

“We have to fulfill what the real meaning of the Second Amendment is: reasonable access to guns for self-protection and for hunting. And there's no room in America for these semiautomatic, automatic and other kinds of weapons that are simply designed to cause mass havoc. 

                                                                       — Alan Dershowitz, attorney

AUBURN — As a part-time teacher, I refuse to step into a classroom with a concealed weapon strapped to my ankle or hidden under my sports coat.

I am not a Clint Eastwood wannabe playing a rogue cop in the 1976 movie, “The Enforcer.” Schools don’t need teachers playing Dirty Harry with a Glock capable wiping out the population of Rhode Island.

It shouldn’t be a choice, either. It is not a viable option for a number of reasons.

It’s law enforcement’s job to confront and corral criminals. Police know how to handle a handgun and undergo extensive training to deal with dangerous suspects.

This rabid violence against this nation’s young is also societal problem and it is up to this nation’s citizens and leaders to arrive at a sensible solution.

A pistol is no match against an assault rifle.

It is like bringing a knife to a gun fight. 

And I don’t buy the argument that an assault rifle is just another gun. 

Baloney! 

This gun was designed for military combat. It has no business being in anybody’s gun locker.

I understand there are thousands of Americans who own and respect guns. Many of them are hunters and look at a rifle as necessary tool to put food on the table.

But I feel students might be intimidated with teachers carrying a piece. My responsibilities include teaching history or English, being a role model and steering students in the right direction. I would find it awkward and uncomfortable to inspire a classroom while I am carrying cumbersome handgun with a 10-shot clip.

Teachers are not armed prison guards strutting around the yard and staring down inmates. Breaking up a school fight could become complicated for a teacher carrying a weapon. A scuffle might turn dangerous and end in tragedy when a teacher’s pistol suddenly becomes the epicenter of a hallway confrontation between students.

What if a teacher, who draws his gun during a shooting incident, is mistakenly killed by police. Who wants that kind of collateral damage!

Arming teachers is an absurd notion for any politician who suggests weapons in schools will deter or put an end to school shootings.

The shooting in Florida where 17 wonderful, promising lives were lost when an unhinged student entered a school with an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle and opened fire.

I am proud of those Florida students who stepped up and challenged our nation’s waffling leaders to move on gun control. Those survivors were courageous during the shooting and their tenacity to push the gun control debate to the forefront is commendable.

In a perfect world, our leaders would layoff using Twitter and actually govern and listen to the outcry of their constituency and the teen-agers who are under assault.

There are many vacuous decisions emanating from a chaotic and pugnacious White House — and arming teachers tops the Oval Office’s list of absurd priorities.

Weapons training for teachers is not an antidote to school shootings. No teacher can also fulfill the role of an armed school resources officer. I don’t want to moonlight as Wyatt Earp with a six-shooter.

There are a handful of valid reasons why such violence erupts in schools — which should be safe, secure, nurturing and fun.

Besides banning assault weapons and conducting stringent background checks, there is a failing mental health system, poor parenting, and missed red flags. Until these issues are addressed and resolved, the death toll in our schools will rise. 

One of the most memorable lines in “The Godfather” is when a Mafia hood says, “Leave the gun, take the cannoli.”

I have no problem taking a cannoli to school, but I will leave a firearm at home.

I am not making light of this epidemic of school shootings. I’ve been in a lockdown and it was a terrifying experience for students for 20 long minutes. My concern would always be the students first, not reaching for a gun.

Leave the war on crime to the men in blue and out of dedicated teachers’ job descriptions — or put two capable, heavily-armed SROs in every school. Israel’s schools are fortresses thanks to heavy security.

We are educators not gun-totting bodyguards.